Good project management is an important factor to the success of a project. A project may be thought of as a collection of activities and tasks designed to achieve a specific goal of the organization, with specific performance or quality requirements while meeting any subject time and cost constraints. Project management refers to managing the activities that lead to the successful completion of a project. Project management focuses on finite deadlines and objectives. A number of tools may be used to assist with project management and assessment.
Project management may be used when planning of personnel resources and check capacities is desired. The project may be linked to the objects in a professional services life cycle and may accompany the objects from the opportunity over quotation, contract, time and expense (T&E) recording, billing, period-end-activities until the final reporting. Naturally the project gets even more detailed when moving through this cycle.
A project may arise as an opportunity or a request for quotation (inquiry) sent by a potential customer. When the opportunity or request arrives, a decision has to take place by the manager whether the opportunity should be pursued or a quotation be submitted. Even at this early stage, it is important to check whether the company has the necessary capacity and resources with the required skills and qualifications available at the requested time.
For any given project, several project tasks should be defined. Project tasks describe the activities and phases that have to be performed in the project such as writing of blueprints, customizing, testing etc. and can be arranged hierarchically.
For a project to be successful, the person that carries out the project task needs to be able to interface with the project software to provide updates on their activities. For external staffing, project reporting should use the same procedure and interface as internal staffing.
What is needed is a system that allows personnel to be able to record their activities (times and expenses) to allow for the reimbursement of travel expenses, controlling of costs both of sales and service execution and to support workforce planning (e. g. absence, attendance).